FIFA 13 Pro Clubs: EA Sports Should Be Ashamed

EA Sports should be ashamed of themselves: they like to honk the FIFA horn every year to pump up the excitement for the yearly rendition and roll out of their much-loved FIFA franchise. The first titbits’ of information trickle out in a trailer that rarely resembles how the game will play, barely showing any difference to the trailers from the year before, albeit with a new kit, or the latest boots thrown into the mix, but let’s be honest who really cares about them?

I remember the high flying days of the Pro Evo where gameplay was king, with kits and names taking a backseat. The gameplay was improved upon each year, with the differences being notable, and how I miss those days. EA have the power of the biggest football license to pull the wool over your eyes, shove two fingers up your nostrils, and blare sirens in your ears to attempt to disguise the fact that nothing much has changed since FIFA 10.

They constantly talk about the new modes like a shark-like salesman, blagging their way into magazines, websites and your thoughts. I would love to see these gameplay tweaks scrape to the surface and show their face every 10 games or so, but they never do, and I’m losing hope. Seasons mode has remained the same for the past two years, as has pretty much everything else, but the thing that infuriates me the most is EA Sports’ constant overlooking of Pro Clubs, which has been the same every year since FIFA 10. The only new addition to clubs is the copy and paste formula from the single player Seasons for FIFA 13’s Pro Clubs, making it four years of the same game, and almost entering into Call of Duty territory.

Pro Clubs plays completely different from every other mode in the game, which makes it easily the most annoying one to play, despite it being the only decent area available to play multiplayer with your friends, outside of a head-to-head match. And unfortunately, every single player in your team has the talents of the lowliest hung-over Sunday morning league player.

Keeping a team made up of a complete mishmash of names with little to no ability was fair in FIFA 10 as it was a new experience, but that was 3 releases ago, and this is the worst thing about the whole situation. Faced with one of the thousands of 4ft pros with high stats who are littered in every online team the commentator announces as Galacticos, Legends or All Stars and who the unimaginative players out there constantly choose, your generic players appear even more useless by comparison.

The passing, shooting, tackling and positioning is a far cry from what happens when playing single player seasons, causing mass frustration and stress online as you frequently concede goals that ping pong off everyone and your keeper, leading to that same 4ft man tapping in. Passing goes awry often and your players’ first touches are more appropriate for non-sport playing mammals – the clichéd “good touch for a big man” is never uttered in Pro Clubs. Awkward falls, running away from the ball and just general stupidity oozes from every unknown player in every game, and frustratingly it’s not always your ability that hinders your clubs progression, it’s more often the fools that the EA devs have left at your disposal to make a team from.

Playing Pro Clubs makes me wonder whether the developers even test it out? If they did, how on Earth did they ever find it enjoyable, and a perfect fit for what the single player offers? It’s awful. Too much concentration is focused on developing your pro, one man on the pitch with 21 others who can frequently be poor. Why couldn’t EA add in a levelling system for your team, so competing against the unstoppable little people wouldn’t be so much of a chore?

In the next FIFA games, I demand to see gameplay updates that help the genre move forward: I don’t want to see pointless managers on the touchline, or subs warming up behind the goal, considering you can’t make any substitutes in pro clubs anyway. Those two have been recently added, bringing nothing to the gameplay experience and distracting from time that could have been spent developing the pro clubs gameplay experience.

Lastly, the reviews for FIFA each year always heap praise on EA Sports and lavish a high score on the game.It’s these reviews, and those for Call of Duty, that are evidence that the games review companies are s0 afraid of the powerhouse game developers to say anything negative, in fear of having their exclusives about the next yearly update taken away from them. Their cowardice might serve a professional purpose, but its the gamers who suffer most.

What do you think of Fifa 13’s pro club mode? Share your thoughts below.

Discussion

37 Comments

I agree with a lot of what you have said. I get sick of playing against these pepped up tiny-men who are at most times undefendable in one on ones or who run down the wing, cut in and shoot through everyone into the top corner.

What my problem is Fifa doesn’t reward team-play, my Pro Club have a mix of players, the 6ft7″ defender, the box to box CDM (me), playmaker, winger, and 2/3 strikers ranging from 5’9 to 6’2. The way we play is how we would (and want to) play on a real football pitch and we are in Division 1 of this ‘seasons’ process but are most times battling relegation or climbing back up from Div 2.

One saving grace is the ability to turn off ANY players and Pro-Keepers, yes keepers make it more interesting but not when they save every shot an AI keeper wouldn’t, the game needs more balance in relation to this. And in regards to ANY players it is the worst inclusion to a game i can think of. We play pro clubs for 5 v 5 not ANY+1 v 5. It’s pathetic.

All i want to see is an improvement in TEAM achievements rather than individual ones, noticeable AI improvements as your Pros improve and go up divisions and last of all more choice of customisable player creations so we have a range of player ability at all heights weights and positions rather than the stereotypical tiny-men and Olympic Gymnast goalkeepers.

Other than that, i play Clubs for the social aspect, i live 100 miles from my friends at home (i’m at uni) and it gives us a chance to catch up and also share some hilarious moments and the ups and downs of actually playing together in real life. It makes up for all the problems but i agree significant changes should be made to make it worth the £40 people spend every year on Fifa 10+3.

I disagree, i think the inclusion of an ANY player is far better than a button bashing 12 year old..when they have everything set to auto so they put in zero effort to score goal after goal and build their pro up stupidly fast. At least if I can play any, I can defend better than computer players would, and upset the progress of these players who think football is a one pass one shot game. Whats worse is EA cater to these boosting button bashers and they ruin the game for REAL football fans who enjoy playing a REAL style of football not this watered down arcade rubbish that its turning into..EA SORT IT OUT!

Pro Clubs broken. Ultimate Team (the most popular game mode) broken in multiple ways with key features like saving Custom Formations not working. Same issue happened last year and was not fixed until months later. We have the handicap aka Emotional Football issue. And on top of that people getting banned on the official forum it they discuss about it.

The game is in shambles. The maxed out ratings on the game from the game websites/magazines are fake. Shall I go on?

Yes please HH! I left out the servers not working properly. Also, while playing EA Challenge mode, when I equalised the game just sent me into the pause menu. It had nothing to do with my control pad as the xbox guide button and subsequent menus still worked when clicked on, and I changed my controller. Never has a sports game caused me so much fury than the Fifa franchise!

I thought you would talk about the more pressing issues in Pro Clubs than 5ft pros. 4ft doesn’t even (I think). Lack of customization (stadiums, kits, club crests etc), no real incentive to get promoted or win games, constant freezing in arena, constant disconnects in matches, cursor jumping all over the place when in the lobby, lack of substitutions, inability to use virtual pro offline (like previous games) and so much more. This is why competition in any industry is key. EA Sports essentially have a monopoly on the football video game market and they have no real incentive to improve their game or add new features so they can just churn out the same game year in year out and not worry about sales. However, I have made up my mind and will NOT be bugging FIFA this year. I’m sick of the constant ignoring of Pro Clubs and Virtual Pro.

EA should be sued for selling us an unfinished product. Did they beta test this game? I find it hard to believe.. How is it possible to overlook all those obvious problems in the game? not only that but some of the same glitches year after year.

We all need to boycott the franchise, i for one wont be buying it next year as i have never in all my life suffered such misery from a game company. Trouble is, EA will continue to churn out this bull shhhh every year until it has to win us back, but the little floppy haired messi fan biys wont boycott, so we all have to put up with this below par rubbish. FIFpro should sell the rights to pro evo and see how they do, lets see how EA fair when they dont have the rights. I beg you all to spend you £40 elsewhere next year.

BRING BACK LOUNGE MODE! Some of us have real world friends and enjoyed playing against them in the same room and keeping a tally of games won/lost, goals scored etc, why they got rid and persistently refuse to out it back in is bizarre

i totaly agree with all of you, i also play pro clubs a lot with mostly my family and as they live a fair few miles away (like Dan) its good to catch up and play a game we all enjoy, but this enjoyment has slowley dissapeard as i keep getting disonnected from the EA servers and very rarely finish a full pro clubs game!! and whats with the CPU?? it seems like no matter how good your pro improves the CPU get worse!! doing stupid, brain dead things and putting all your hard work to shame, its very frustrating and getting to the point now where i dont want to pay £40 for a game thats never going to change! if i wanted a game like that i would buy call of duty!! also having players the size of midgets that are super fast and have the strength of an ox! honestley, who in the premier league is that small, quick and strong? im playing on the xbox and do enjoy playing with my family online but whats the point if you cant finish a game or even compete with the midgets?

I agree with everything in this article. EA should not only be ashamed of ignoring Pro Clubs but also the pre-release advertisement for co-op mode but then calling it “local” coop mode and still not allowing 2v2 ranked online. We would not have to suffer through this trash called Pro Clubs if they would allow for real ranked co-op online. Note that “local” coop has been in fifa since Fifa 2007 at least so advertising it as new is misleading At a minimum. EA should be ashamed, as I am disgusted.

I think you’re all a bit harsh to be honest… Me and my friends have recently started one and are loving it! I think if they didnt have the “any” setting it would be annoying but they do so its no big deal

its about time EA made every attribute your player has earnable, height should have no bearing to speed as even 5ft players can win headers if the player gets infront of his marker, perhaps have a weight cap so midgets cannot be super strong meaning that the taller player has a chance of holding off speedy players bringing balance to the game.

why dont they just open a forum and get ideas from the ppl actually playing the game then implement those, that way ppl cant complain as it would be what we wanted

‘Jammy’ – You’ve just started one so ofcourse you are enjoying it. When we all started we enjoyed it. It didn’t matter that the Any players were awful. It was just fun to play with your friends. But give it another couple of weeks or so and you’ll be as annoyed as us. The fact is, Pro Clubs is still a well played game mode, although the numbers have dropped considerably since 12. There were so many issues in 12, the least EA could have done was sort that out. But instead they’ve just made it worse. Sometimes it’s impossible to start or put together an attack as the any players are terrible. You can make the simplest of passes straight to their feet and they’ll still have terrible control. I read an interview with an EA employee about pro clubs before 13 was out stating that the any players would be based on real players. Unless these players are from Bray Wanderers then it’s rubbish. Infact, that’s unfair to the Bray Wanderers players. Atleast you can play real football with them. I agree with everything in the article, and to those of you who have stated you what to customise things, then yeah, it would be nice ofcourse, but I would trade all that, even play in a red vs blue plain kit for the gameplay to be improved. EA should definitely be ashamed. It honestly felt like they ran out of staff, so asked the post room guy to develop this game mode for them. I would say ‘I’m never buying a FIFA again’ but we all know that we will. We’ll play the demo, say ‘oh yeah this one feels smoother, oh look they’ve sorted out the bad touches, hey emile heskey is back, yeah I like this one.’ We’ll go out, buy it, play the new pro clubs where you can make substitutes or something new and say ‘wow yeah, they’ve improved it.’ Ten games in, we’ll realise we’ve substituted Nigel Owen for Barry Rooney, but no, they aren’t like the real footballers, they’re still bad touching sunday league players and that EA post guy will be rolling around in our cash cackling while we lose our hair though stress at 21. Get bent EA I hate you.

I’m glad I came across this article, I genuinly started to wonder if it was just us suffering from the maddening problems with pro clubs, like the terrible build up play without an ANY and the awfull defensive mistakes like the keeper passing out to a cenrte half who promtly looses the ball to a forward, but without doubt the absolute worst and quickly becoming intollerable issue is with the servers, it’s taking a minimum of 15 minutes to log into the lobby after constantly being disconnected. I’m fuming with EA and the only way of venting that frustration is on a site that the tech bods will never look at, they are the most ignorant company out there right now making it nigh on impossible to register a complaint. I love the concept of pro clubs but I despise the way it’s being run.

This applies to not only Pro Clubs but every game mode (it’s super annoying in UT as they’ll lose fitness much more quickly) but how is it we can be over 4 months in since release and still not have a patch for the full-backs that love to sit on your own 18 when the opponent has a goal kick, making goal kicks a legitimate scoring opportunity if the flick on is done right. I manually move them back but seriously how long until they patch it? I’m sure they’ll fix it. They’ll call it FIFA 14, charge us $60 and create 14 new problems.

@ Dan, the full back issue is the complete opposite to the one on FIFA 12 clubs where one would run up to the oppositions box at goal kicks. It’s as if they came along and changed that bit of code in as little time as possible and just reversed where the full back stands on the pitch.

All we asked for last year was a little customisation for clubs, but EA couldn’t even do that. I mean, how hard is it to allow us to: designate our kick takers, save our favourite formation so it doesn’t reset to 4222 all the time, or design custom kits? They have even taken away the results pages for friendlies so clubs that set up their own competitions with others have nothing to go off. Why take them away? They were already there!

I agree with a lot of the posts here, but also would like to add a few of my own – EA, please please please take out the 5 min rule – I know its there so that if there are connection issues you can disconnect within the first 5 game minutes without penalty but you will find 99.9% of the time that if you score within the first 5 mins, the opposition team will ALWAYS quit… Annoys the crud out of me!! also, the AI are rubbish and never ever learn – The amount of times in 1 match the opposition try to score the same way (cut across the edge of the area and look for the far corner every time) etc.. Its all too easy for the 5ft 2 midgets to just sprint past them, they rarely stick out a foot and are generally acting like they are drunk – The opposition AI NEVER has a bad game but ours never have a good game!!!

I agree with everything that has been said i buy fifa for the vp side of it but this is ridiculous, my team gets done over constantly! cant remember the last good goal scored against us, opposition bots seem to play amazing yet our bots are shocking, our clubs called doneover rovers for obvious reasons! i cant see why EA didn’t make your bots play like they were on legendary so u actually have to work the ball around instead of just wallking through our defence, u message people askin them how they do it and you just stupid replys……… is there a good formation and tactic to play?? any help would be appreciated because im close to suicide lol

I just came across this article as I too am feeling furious with pro clubs seasons, me and my friends have been playing it since November. The amount of lag (or low ping with servers) causes a delay in pro players and the any players movements and reactions which is by far the most annoying thing of all(no such issue in other game modes). The advice I can give you about the formation is that the best one is either 5-2-1-2 or 4-1-2-1-2 referred to as 4-2-2 (diamond wide)

Have just played a few games with some mates and am unbelievably frustrated. We are a team that likes to pass the ball but also vary play with through balls, short passes and crosses. We dont play with an ANY and instead rely on the awful AI (id like to stress that we are not a long ball team that relies on the AI all the time) Im not arguing for or against ANY’s as i can see the arguments for both, this is just our preference and we match the settings so we play like minded people. We all agree on this list of bugs and im sure im probably missing some)

1. Delay from pressing button to playing taking action (pressing pass and nothing happening)
2. Full back standing next to your penalty area from opposition goal kick.
3. AI wont get out of your way when you want to run past them, and you cant pass it to them as you dont trust them to not give it straight to opposition.
4. Keeper passes ball from goal kick either straight to their striker or your CB who then gets tackled.
5. Cursor on position select screen jumps around.
6. In game team management screen either too responsive or doesnt move at all (this is the time you want it to work so you can play the damn game).
7. Incomprehensible fouls/bookings (ive been sent off for standing still or given a foul away for having a shot). On the other hand i can be virtually assaulted and nothing will happen.
8. Defenders perform skill moves into the opposition on a regular basis.
9. AI teammates do not pass despite me calling for the ball repeatedly in 20yrds of space and end up losing the ball.
10. Defenders will stop chasing opposition striker allowing them through on goal.
11. My pro will regularly sidestep while i am trying to run back and defend, usually when im almost lvl with the striker, this of course slows me down and they can shoot.
12. Does not save formations.
13. Does not allow you to choose kick takers.
14. Through balls near the touchline regularly go out.
15. Midgets can win headers against someone who is a foot taller than them.
16. Game loses connection to easfc (another joyous creation of theirs) on menu.
17. Game loses connection to easfc in arena.
18. Game loses connection to easfc in a match.
19. Ball bounces off my pro (90 CAM playmaker, very high ball control) at the slightest weak pass towards me (i regularly hold LT/L2 when receiving the ball) and is regularly shockingly bad when AI receives the ball. As a team that likes to pass it, this is hardly an incentive to try and play football properly, the danger of playing it back to a defender is extreme as the midget striker can easily run onto the predictably miscontrolled touch.
20. Referee constantly in the way. Whether he is body checking me in midfield or simply standing in the way of a pass, it happens all the time. I realise it happens in real life, but RARELY! You cant justify it by saying its a real life thing when much of the above list never happens in real life! Why cant they make it so you run through or pass it through him rather than him having a physical presence??
21. Having to wait 5 mins around their penalty area at the start of the game as we know they’ll quit if we score.
22. Free kicks from around half way line taken by AI regularly being belted to the opposition keeper.
23. Throw ins taken by AI regularly thrown to a player of yours who is the smallest and heaviest marked.
24. Filters for opposition ANY/keeper dont always work.
25. Results screen in clubs menu freezes the game (something they said they fixed months ago)
26. Position select screen freezes game if someone disconnects when loading into a match (which is more than likely as the game disconnects regularly)
27. Keepers regularly punch the ball over their bar when it is far easier to simply raise both arms and calmly catch it.

Thats 27 different problems that i can remember, Im sure there are many many more. Bearing in mind this list of bugs/faults/developer laziness has been written after numerous patches from EA all seemingly designed to promote FUT. I personally dont play FUT and have nothing against those that do, but do those of us who dont play a game mode that can make EA additional money stand a chance of having a good experience?? Its no coincidence that all FIFA 13 marketing, be it at real football matches, on TV, or elsewhere, focuses solely on FUT!

I remember reading before the game came out that AI players improve as your club goes up in divisions. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that while the overalls for players on the team management screen have gone up, this is more than offset by the football they play. It would not surprise me if for 14 they reintroduced the AI 5 yrd chip pass.

I realise this has become a bit of an essay and im not normally someone to comment on a site, but i have become so frustrated by this, and i am in fact the calm one in my club. I dont pretend to know anything about designing a video game, but neither should EA when they rave about how it is the best FIFA ever and has attained 9.9/10 score from some company they no doubt paid to review it or only gave the demo to.

Anyway, im sure there is no way such a list will ever reach EA but its good to vent once in a while isnt it? Feel free to add to the list if ive missed anything.

I agree with you 100%. My pro is a 5´11 CAM 91 overall and i play mostly with my brother, he lives in south america and playing Pro Clubs is pretty much a way of catching up every night and stuff, i consider myself a hardcore gamer and a really good one too. My thought on this is that clearly this game mode was not tested, you can see this with the many bugs that it has. So added to your comments i have some more things to say, if you dont mind, also i would like to literally copy and paste your post into an ea games forum to see if this guys finally do something about it, with your approval of course. So:

-Lately, i dont know whats wrong with the AI but some players often just grab the ball and wont pass it regardless of how many times you press x, they just keep the ball mingling back and forth and we end up trying to steal the ball from our own teammates. It has been happening at least once every other match, completely sucks.

-Ea fails to create a sense of belonging for the club, the randomly selected names and players physiques are just pathetic, not to mention their abilities… We should be able to customize our team to the detail, from players´ names to flags and stadiums…I know i´m not asking for much as Winning Eleven 10 had this option. (yeah, that was 8 years ago).

-The difference in skills between the midgets and the average height guy is just far off reality, i can´t find enough words to describe how much i hate people who have 5 ft pros, although i understand them- i myself had to create a 5´11 pro even though im 6´2 in real life so it would ressemble more or less my abilities…

-Another HUGE FAIL i see, and this is not only in Pro Clubs, it´s that if you´re running to the space and want a pass directly from a teammate behind you, your player automatically jumps to let the ball go through, this slows down your run and pisses people off because you can´t even control it… and it happens MANY times, i wonder if the guys who make the game even watch football/soccer because i have never seen such a lack of technique and ridiculousness in a real life game, not even in the past FIFA titles.

-Defending is a pain in the ass, when you press circle so your defender can make a clearance, you expect a clearance not a pass to you or to the opposing team… your defenders will just turn around and clear the ball either straight towards the lateral line, or to the center of the pitch just outside your own box.

-Being a captain should allow you to have more control over certain things like setting up kick takers even before the games start. Moreover, ONLY the captain should be allowed to tell the AI when to shoot or clear the ball…

-Defending close to your box needs to be more active, the AI will literally just stand still and watch the opponent run around the box even when you have high pressure “on” and you´re holding R1, its just pathetic, annoying and not realistic at all.

-When you´re running close to an AI teammate (or just another teammate controlled by a player) and move the right analog stick as to do a longer touch, the AI assumes its a pass and just takes the ball away from you.

-When you ask for the ball and the AI has it, and you are close maybe 5 ft away or so, the freaking player will pass the ball in your direction but with three times as much power so the pass will end up in another AI.

-Specially in counter attacks, when you pass the ball to the AI (AI is running ahead of you) it suddenly stops running to receive the ball and the ball just bounces off the opposite direction you´re running, annoying.

-When there is a throughball and the opposing player is running for the ball and your defender is chasing him, i don´t really now what happens but often the defender just decides to run slower or to stop completely and just stop chasing the attacker.

So, added to what Jake (below) said, i would suggest a training mode, within the pro clubs game mode, how are you going to improve your skills if you don´t practice them? if you want to improve Fk accuracy then practice FKs and gain xp for doing so on a regular basis. The progress should be gradual. Challenges here would not be a bad idea so not everyone can get the same xp if they are not as good in certain ability, pretty much as the challenges available at the main menu but with the difference that these pro club challenges would actually help improve your pro or your club! Im not saying there shouldn´t be in-game achievements, i´m suggesting a combination of both in-game and training/challenges achievements. This would defninitely make the game better.

Everything I’ve seen here I agree with, as far as the bugs are concerned. So not speaking about all the negatives, I have thought of a few ways to vastly improve gameplay once the bugs are fixed.

1. Make formations customizable outside of the matches, and be able to adjust workrates and such to at least make the AI do what you want them to do rather than have all Med/Med workrates and stand around.

2. Make it so you can customize player names and appearances, club kits and badges. We are only able to name our team without any further customization, which to me seems a little weak. I think being able to name all your players would be entertaining, rather than having a bunch of random names and appearances.

3. The last big change that should be made is customizing the players themselves. Every AI is exactly the same, with + or – a few skill points for different positions. Personally, I would like to be able to give each player a certain amount of skill points, and apply them as you see fit. That being said, there should be a cap level for each skill point and position so not every player can have 99 pace and dominate the game. I think as you go up in division, you can add more skill points. They should do this by position, so that Attackers can have a high Shot and Pace cap, while Defenders have a high defending and heading cap. Doing this would ensure that teams aren’t all pace, but would still make the game more enjoyable when your players do what you want, and have the ability to do so.

I wish EA would actually listen to their customers, but assuming they don’t then all of these ideas are for nothing. I am keeping up hope though that maybe someday we can have an enjoyable Pro Clubs mode.

I agree with you 100%. My pro is a 5´11 CAM 91 overall and i play mostly with my brother, he lives in south america and playing Pro Clubs is pretty much a way of catching up every night and stuff, i consider myself a hardcore gamer and a really good one too. My thought on this is that clearly this game mode was not tested, you can see this with the many bugs that it has. So added to your comments i have some more things to say, if you dont mind, also i would like to literally copy and paste your post into an ea games forum to see if this guys finally do something about it, with your approval of course. So:

-Lately, i dont know whats wrong with the AI but some players often just grab the ball and wont pass it regardless of how many times you press x, they just keep the ball mingling back and forth and we end up trying to steal the ball from our own teammates. It has been happening at least once every other match, completely sucks.

-Ea fails to create a sense of belonging for the club, the randomly selected names and players physiques are just pathetic, not to mention their abilities… We should be able to customize our team to the detail, from players´ names to flags and stadiums…I know i´m not asking for much as Winning Eleven 10 had this option. (yeah, that was 8 years ago).

-The difference in skills between the midgets and the average height guy is just far off reality, i can´t find enough words to describe how much i hate people who have 5 ft pros, although i understand them- i myself had to create a 5´11 pro even though im 6´2 in real life so it would ressemble more or less my abilities…

-Another HUGE FAIL i see, and this is not only in Pro Clubs, it´s that if you´re running to the space and want a pass directly from a teammate behind you, your player automatically jumps to let the ball go through, this slows down your run and pisses people off because you can´t even control it… and it happens MANY times, i wonder if the guys who make the game even watch football/soccer because i have never seen such a lack of technique and ridiculousness in a real life game, not even in the past FIFA titles.

-Defending is a pain in the ass, when you press circle so your defender can make a clearance, you expect a clearance not a pass to you or to the opposing team… your defenders will just turn around and clear the ball either straight towards the lateral line, or to the center of the pitch just outside your own box.

-Being a captain should allow you to have more control over certain things like setting up kick takers even before the games start. Moreover, ONLY the captain should be allowed to tell the AI when to shoot or clear the ball…

-Defending close to your box needs to be more active, the AI will literally just stand still and watch the opponent run around the box even when you have high pressure “on” and you´re holding R1, its just pathetic, annoying and not realistic at all.

-When you´re running close to an AI teammate (or just another teammate controlled by a player) and move the right analog stick as to do a longer touch, the AI assumes its a pass and just takes the ball away from you.

-When you ask for the ball and the AI has it, and you are close maybe 5 ft away or so, the freaking player will pass the ball in your direction but with three times as much power so the pass will end up in another AI.

-Specially in counter attacks, when you pass the ball to the AI (AI is running ahead of you) it suddenly stops running to receive the ball and the ball just bounces off the opposite direction you´re running, annoying.

-When there is a throughball and the opposing player is running for the ball and your defender is chasing him, i don´t really now what happens but often the defender just decides to run slower or to stop completely and just stop chasing the attacker.

So, added to what Jake (below) said, i would suggest a training mode, within the pro clubs game mode, how are you going to improve your skills if you don´t practice them? if you want to improve Fk accuracy then practice FKs and gain xp for doing so on a regular basis. The progress should be gradual. Challenges here would not be a bad idea so not everyone can get the same xp if they are not as good in certain ability, pretty much as the challenges available at the main menu but with the difference that these pro club challenges would actually help improve your pro or your club! Im not saying there shouldn´t be in-game achievements, i´m suggesting a combination of both in-game and training/challenges achievements. This would defninitely make the game better.

I dont know if anyone has the same problem as I, but my AI teammates are extremely bad. They miss all the passes and have no idea. Besides this, the AI from the opponent teams are very strong and never lose any balls. I would love to know why or if I have to change any options. Thanks

well lets just say on fifa 11 i had 550 goals in 530 games as a ST and on fifa 12 and 13 i dont get 1 goal in 2 games so clearly the game has worsened ea are so lazy they refuse to fix these problems and all of you that are complaining on here i totally feel your pain and know wat its like its so frustrating especially when i look at how successful my club was on fifa 11

I’m a fan (unlike most of you) of this years’ Pro Clubs.
Although i haven’t played Pro Clubs in previous versions on FIFA and have been more leaning towards Ultimate Team, i find Pro Clubs is a fun way to connect with friends and go on an adventure at the same time. I have 6 players in my club, and because of some of the glitches/bugs with the AI,most of the time we use one player as “Any”. Personally though, i don’t really see anything that wrong with the computer AI. You will notice that if you’re the Captain of the match, if you hold circle and R1 while the opposition is attacking and the AI is defending, it will put pressure on the opposition and is very effective. This helps alot however the glitches and bugs still have some effect. One bug very noticable for me and my club which has not been mentioned yet i think is where the AI refuses to contest for headers wherever they are on the pitch, even if you call for a pass. This is very frustrating as it plays right in to the opposition midget’s hands (or, as i should say, feet).
Although we had alot of trouble at the start of Pro Clubs getting used to the annoying Button Lag and connection problems, we have got 4 successive promotions and are now in Division 5 after about 60 games. We have a wide spread of players based on heights and positions (Ranging from 5’7 to 6’6) and including two defenders. I should have probably tried out Pro Clubs earlier on other editions of FIFA, however at the moment I am having the most fun i have had for a while.

There is NO reward for playing some proper futbol. My friends and i keep count of how many passes the other team makes when they score a goal. Most often, it is 2. A pass from a CB to a mid, then a lob to a midget.

The computer players on pro clubs are horrendous. I would prefer a tiered system where your AI teammates (say start at a 60 overall will increase as your HUMAN PRO average increases till your AI cap out around 80) Your Human PRO will still be better skilled, but the ineptness of the current pro clubs AI seems to be around 45-50 at best.

I DO believe that a Human GK is better than the computer even though its difficult. We have won more games consistently with one of us there, even tho my keeper is only an 83, it seems to help.

Neither of our pros on our team are midgets. My pro is 6’1″ and an 87 overall that normally plays CAM. Our other teammate is a ST that is a 91 overall who is 5’8″ but both of our players have been ranked up by playing many games (around 700) and it sickens me to lose to teams that do not earn victory with skill, but rather a button mashing, non passing, get lucky and score on the 3rd try to beat the keeper because the keeps’ deflection always lands at their feet.

Pro clubs is broken and nobody can deny that. There is no incentive to play good football and work as a team. I imagine many of you will of played amazing football with your friends in the past and to have unfortunately hit the post of something, only to have there AI player volley the ball backwards perfectly to the midfielders feet who then does has a high through to some bullet like midget (with blue hair and possibly an Afro no doubt) who fends off defends twice their size with ease and score an easy goal.

Like many of you have recommended is a team that improves as your pro does, not 11 players at 99 but at least some improvement.

My main hope for pro clubs in 14 is better AI, especially for the keeper (big mistakes are made every game that are completely out of your control. A proper physics engine for the ball, no predetermined passes and shots that payout the same way each time, proper physics that make sense. Nothing worse than the ball bouncing beaten two players only to always benefit the opposition.

Referees that understand a good tackle when they see one, non of this slide tackle that doesn’t even hit the other guy and then getting carded for it.

Being able to substitute in the game and allow that substitution that is a real player who might of joined later and has to wait for the game to end.

please someone tell me how you get your bots to defend on this game?? every single club i come across their bots are unbelievable yet ours stand there regardless of tactics or whatever and tbh im sick of hearing its down to luck because luck means it goes in your favour which NEVER happens we constantly lose because of the bots i don’t understand why ea dont just make the bots play on world class or legendary like the person above me said the opponents never play more than 3 passes yet if we try that their world class cb’s take the ball off you straight away, i would rather play fifa 97 if i had a ps1

I believe the bots do imporove slighly based on the star rating of your team.

Still they are bad though.

To those people who complain the opposition bots are better than there’s . Unless your playing a cup match against a Div 1 team this is not the case .

Your opp’s default players are just as rubbish as yours – It’s probably their formation doing yours in . You should always look at oppositions formo and change yours to suit .

EG I find that when playing 4-4-2 diamond (4-1-2-1-2) It is very very hard to play against 4-3-2-1 wide. Changing to a flat 4-4-2 will make it easier to defend against 4-3-2-1.

You will also find it’s almost impossible to play against 5-3-2 Ultra D . Most 5 at the back formations , with ultra devensive are total anti football n00b formations . Just 9 men behind the ball constantly then as soon as they get it LB+Y up to the midget stood at the CB’s shoulder . If he loses ball , repeat. Literally the default defenders block every shot you take